WHERE  GARMENTS  and 
AMERICANS  are  MADE 


STORY  OF  SICKER  SYSTEM  OF  FACTORY 
EDUCATION  FOR  AMERICANIZATION  OF 
FOREIGNERS,  CONDUCTED  IN  CO-OPERA- 
TION WITH  THE  NEW  YORK  BOARD  OF 
EDUCATION.—  A  Challenge  to  Hyphenatism 


S 


03 


GIFT  OF 


Where  Garments  and 
Americans  are  Made 


Published  in  Response  to  a  Growing 
Demand  for  Information  on  the  Sub- 
ject from  Educators,  Manufacturers, 
Social  Workers,  Clergymen,  and 
Publicists. 


Where  Garments  and 

Americans  are 

Made 


Story  of  Sicher  System  of  Factory  Education 
for  Americanization  of  Foreigners,  Con- 
ducted in  Co-operation  with  New 
York  Board  of  Education — A 
Challenge  to  Hyphenatism 


BY 
JESSIE  HOWELL  MAcCARTHY 

(Formerly  Teacher  at  Pratt  Institute  and  Hebrew  Technical  School  for  Girlg, 
New  York  City) 


NEW  YORK 
WRITERS'  PUBLISHING  CO. 

LONDON  AGENTS 

ARTHUR  F.   BIRD 

22  BEDFORD  ST.,  STRAND 


COPYRIGHT,  1917, 
BY  JESSIE  HOWELL  MACCARTHY 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

CHAPTER    I i 

Fore-pages — Summary  of  the  Idea;  Sicher  Factory  and  Board 
of  Education  Americanizing  Foreigners  Who  Are  Paid  While 
Learning;  National  Extension  of  System  Proposed. 

CHAPTER   II 7 

The  Immigrant,  a  Potential  American;  Immigration  a  National 
Necessity;  Injustice  of  Native  Born  Hostility;  Immigrants  Built 
Great  Railroads  and  Tamed  the  Savage;  Mayflower  and  First 
Families  of  Virginia  Stock,  Descendants  of  Immigrants;  British, 
Italian,  Slavic  and  Jewish  Elements  in  American  Life;  Ellis 
Island  the  Ladle  of  the  Melting  Pot;  Immigrants  Come  Here 
to  Escape  Exploitation,  Military  Service,  Despotism,  Religious 
and  Political  Persecution;  Illiteracy  a  National  Menace;  Edu- 
cation Its  Cure. 

CHAPTER  III 14 

A  School  in  a  Factory  Corner;  Illiterate  Immigrant  Typified  in 
Marja,  Imaginary  Peasant  Girl;  Her  Study  Course  Embraces, 

Correspondence — Business  Intercourse,  Social  Intercourse, 
Post-office  Regulations,  Geography,  Writing,  Reading,  Spelling, 
and  Language. 

Civics — Origin  of  Legal  Holidays,  Lives  of  Statesmen, 
History,  Good  Citizenship,  Merits  of  Our  System  of  Govern- 
ment; Other  Systems  of  Government,  Patriotism. 

Hygiene — Personal  Cleanliness,  Physical  Culture,  First  Aid 
to  the  Injured,  Foods — Their  Nutritive  Value. 

Mathematics  in  Its  Personal  Application — As  a  Money 
Medium  of  Exchange;  Personal  Expense  Accounts;  Work  Re- 
ports; Table  of  Weights  and  Measures,  and  Four  Fundamental 
Operations — Addition,  Subtraction,  Multiplication,  and  Di- 
vision. 

Evolution  of  an  Undergarment — Geography,  Physical  and 
Political;  Shipping;  Manufacture;  Economic;  Bleaching,  Spin- 
ning; Cotton  Plant  and  History. 

[ml 


3597*8 


Table  of  Contents 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

Practical  Information — Local  Laws;  Health  and  Safety; 
Routes  of  City  Travel;  The  Alphabet  as  a  Guide  to  Common 
Things — Consulting  the  Dictionary,  Directory,  Telephone 
Book,  Want  Advertisements,  and  the  Like,  Where  Alphabet- 
ical Arrangement  Is  Used. 

How  to  Use  Methods  of  Communication — Letter  Writing, 
the  Telephone  and  Telegraph. 

CHAPTER  IV 26 

First  Graduating  Class  of  Forty  Girls  Made  Literate  by  Three- 
quarters  of  an  Hour's  Daily  Instruction  for  Thirty- five  Weeks; 
Studied  While  Working;  Educators  and  Social  Workers,  Such 
as  Dr.  William  H.  Maxwell,  Professor  John  H.  Finley,  P.  P. 
Claxton,  Arthur  D.  Dean,  Mrs.  Anne  Hedges  Talbot,  Mary 
Antin,  Lizzie  E.  Rector,  Anne  Morgan,  See  Girls  Get  Certifi- 
cates of  Literacy. 

CHAPTER    V 34 

The  Service  Department;  Mrs.  Claribel  Gedge  Hill,  Social  Ser- 
vice Expert  in  Charge;  Recreation  Hall;  Hospital;  Circulating 
Library;  Lectures;  Dances;  Musical  Entertainments;  Hygiene 
and  Improved  Living  Conditions;  Dressmaking  Class;  Factory 
Lunch  Room;  Cleanliness  and  Orderliness  in  Distinction  from 
Waste  and  Slovenliness;  Care  of  the  Girl's  Health. 

CHAPTER  VI 42 

The  School  as  it  is  To-day;  New  and  Improved  Plan  of  Study 
Carried  on  by  Miss  Ray  J.  Heirbroner. 

CHAPTER  VII 53 

Is  It  Worth  While?  Mr.  Sicher  Proves  That  It  Is;  Literacy 
Improves  Efficiency  and  Earning  Power  and  Employer  Gets  Back 
Cost  in  Service;  Figures  Showing  Expense  of  School  for  One 
Season. 

EPILOGUE 56 

Vision  of  the  Day  When  a  Wider  Humanity  and 
Co-operation  of  All  National  and  Social  Forces 
Will  Take  the  Place  of  Hatred,  Exploitation  and 
War. 


[iv] 


WHERE   GARMENTS   AND 
AMERICANS   ARE   MADE 

CHAPTER  I 
FORE-PAGES—SUMMARY    OF   THE   IDEA 

Invective  and  abuse  will  not  drive  the  hy- 
phen out  of  our  national  life.  That  can  only 
be  done  through  a  process  of  education,  when 
it  can  be  demonstrated  that  a  man  with  two 
countries  belongs  to  none,  and  that  here  we 
have  the  highest  ideals  and  the  finest  country 
in  the  world. — LEWIS  H.  POUNDS,  President  of 
Brooklyn  Borough,  New  York  City,  in  address 
to  Public  School  teachers,  Sept.  14,  1916. 


IT  is  my  purpose  in  this  little  book  to  tell  the  story 
of  an  interesting  experiment,  absolutely  unique  in 
the  annals  of  education — the  transforming  of  illit- 
erate foreigners  into  literate,  intelligent,  alert,  self- 
respecting,  efficient  Americans.  Long  before  the 
demagogic  politician  learned  the  magic  that  lay  hid- 


II 'here  Garments  ond  Americans  Are  Made 

den  in  the  catch  cry,  "Hyphenated  American/'  and 
began  to  use  it  as  a  sort  of  campaign  fanfare,  Mr. 
Dudley  D.  Sicher,  of  D.  E.  Sicher  &  Co.,  No.  49 
West  2  ist  Street,  Manhattan  Borough,  New  York 
City,  the  largest  manufacturers  of  muslin  under- 
wear in  the  world,  had  undertaken,  with  the  co- 
operation of  the  New  York  City  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, the  task  of  turning  illiterate  foreigners  into 
literate  Americans  by  teaching  them  in  the  factory 
while  engaged  at  their  work. 

"We  aim,"  Mr.  Sicher  explains,  "to  hasten  as- 
similation necessary  to  national  unity;  to  promote 
industrial  betterment  by  reducing  the  friction 
caused  by  failure  to  comprehend  directions,  and 
to  decrease  the  waste  and  loss  that  always  mark  the 
presence  of  the  illiterate  worker." 

In  its  beginning  the  factory  school  was  humble, 
just  as  the  beginnings  of  the  educational  ideas  of 
Pestalozzi,  Froebel  and  Montessori  were  humble, 
but  the  day  will  come  when  this  little  school  will 
be  the  Mecca,  the  holy  place  of  a  movement  that 
is  certain  to  spread  as  employers  of  labor  catch 
glimpses  of  the  dawn  of  the  better  day.  It  is  backed 
by  the  faith  and  money  of  Mr.  Sicher,  the  solid 
support  of  the  Board  of  Education,  and  the  active 

[2] 


NEW    GROUP    OF    FACTORY    STUDENTS    FROM    WAR   ZONE 


Fore-Pages — Summary  of  the  Idea 

and  enthusiastic  cooperation  of  Mr.  P.  P.  Claxton, 
United  States  Commissioner  of  Education;  Pro- 
fessor John  H.  Finley,  and  his  associates,  Mr. 
Arthur  D.  Dean  and  Mrs.  Anne  Hedges  Talbot  of 
the  New  York  State  Board  of  Education;  Mr.  Wil- 
liam H.  Maxwell,  Superintendent  of  Schools,  New 
York  City;  Miss  Lizzie  E.  Rector,  Dr.  Julius  Sachs, 
Mary  Antin,  author  of  'The  Promised  Land";  Pro- 
fessor Jeremiah  W.  Jenks  of  New  York  University 
School  of  Commerce,  and  hosts  of  others. 

The  experiment,  now  in  its  third  year,  has  dem- 
onstrated that  in  thirty-five  weeks  the  illiterate  girl, 
foreign  born  and  trained,  can  be  transformed  into 
a  literate  American  woman  with  a  good  mental 
equipment  and  social  knowledge  essential  for  the 
battle  of  life.  This  school,  in  its  conception  and 
the  potentialities  that  lay  back  of  it,  is  an  original, 
epochal  idea  worked  out  into  definite,  concrete  form, 
and  is  in  no  sense  a  continuation  school  or  part 
time  factory  school  as  some  educators  and  writers 
with  imperfect  knowledge  of  its  methods  have  mis- 
takenly believed.  It  is  a  school  where  girls  are 
taught  in  actual  working  time  by  a  teacher  from 
the  New  York  Public  Schools,  and  is  perhaps  the 


Where  Garments  and  Americans  Are  Made 

only  Factory  school  in  the  world  where  pupils  are 
paid  while  learning. 

With  three-quarters  of  an  hour's  training  daily 
while  the  work  of  the  factory  goes  on  uninterrupt- 
edly, each  pupil  receives  practical  instruction  in  the 
speaking  and  writing  of  the  English  language,  the 
composing  of  personal  and  business  letters,  the  fun- 
damentals of  arithmetic,  history  and  civic  govern- 
ment, good  citizenship,  local  ordinances,  hygiene 
and  sanitation,  the  industrial  evolution  of  the  prod- 
uct they  handle  from  the  cotton  fields  to  the  ma- 
chines they  operate,  and  the  mysteries  of  commu- 
nication so  puzzling  to  the  foreigner — the  use  of 
the  telephone  and  city  directory,  the  sending  of 
telegrams  and  letters,  and  the  finding  of  one's  way 
in  the  city  streets.  No  frills,  no  text-books,  all  emi- 
nently practical  knowledge  so  presented  that  it  is 
never  forgotten. 

And  all  throughout  the  working  day  in  the  fac- 
tory and  in  the  school  a  Social  Service  expert  is 
ever  present  to  mother  the  girls,  counsel  them,  and 
when  injured  to  give  them  first  aid  in  the  little 
factory  hospital.  The  girl's  health  and  social  side 
Mr.  Sicher  considers  quite  as  important  as  her  men- 
tal training. 

[4] 


Fore-Pages — Summary  of  the  Idea 

Mention  has  been  made  of  some  of  the  noted  edu- 
cators and  social  workers  that  have  been  watching 
the  progress  made  by  this  school  since  its  incep- 
tion three  years  ago.  It  has  recently  attracted  the 
attention  of  the  National  Americanization  Commit- 
tee with  offices  at  No.  18  West  Thirty-fourth  Street, 
New  York  City,  and  this  Committee  is  now  actively 
encouraging  the  work  of  the  school.  The  represen- 
tative, solid  character  of  this  Committee  may  be 
seen  by  a  glance  at  the  names  appended  : 

Officers  and  Executive  Committee :  Frank  Trum- 
bull,  Chairman;  Percy  R.  Pyne,  2nd,  ist  Vice- 
Chairman;  Mrs.  Edward  T.  Stotesbury,  2nd  Vice- 
Chairman;  William  Sproule,  3rd  Vice-Chairman ; 
Wm.  Fellowes  Morgan,  Treasurer;  Mrs.  Vincent 
Astor,  Frances  A.  Kellor,  Peter  Roberts,  Mrs.  Cor- 
nelius Vanderbilt,  Felix  M.  Warburg. 

Leading  members  of  the  Committee  are:  Mary 
Antin,  Robert  Bacon,  Edward  Osgood  Brown, 
Nicholas  Murray  Butler,  P.  P.  Claxton,  Richard  T. 
Crane,  Henry  P.  Davison,  Coleman  Du  Pont, 
Thomas  A.  Edison,  Howard  Elliott,  John  H.  Fahey, 
Maurice  Fels,  John  H.  Finley,  David  R.  Francis, 
Elbert  H.  Gary,  James,  Cardinal  Gibbons,  Clarence 
N.  Goodwin,  Benjamin  F.  Harris,  Myron  T.  Her- 

isl 


Where  Garments  and  Americans  Are  Made 

rick,  John  Grier  Hibben,  Henry  L.  Higginson,  Fred- 
eric C.  Howe,  Charles  H.  Ingersoll,  Dr.  Abraham 
Jacobi,  Chancellor  L.  Jenks,  Judge  Manuel  Levine, 
Clarence  H.  Mackay,  C.  H.  Markham,  Alfred  E. 
Marling,  Charles  E.  Mason,  Wyndham  Meredith, 
George  von  L.  Meyer,  John  Mitchell,  A.  J.  Mon- 
tague, John  H.  Moore,  Joseph  C.  Pelletier,  Samuel 
Rea,  Julius  Rosenwald,  M.  J.  Sanders,  Jacob  H. 
Schiff,  Bishop  Thomas  Shahan,  Melville  E.  Stone, 
Mrs,  William  C.  Story,  William  H.  Truesdale,  Rod- 
man Wanamaker,  S.  Davies  Warfield,  Charles  B. 
Warren,  Benjamin  Ide  Wheeler,  General  Leonard 
Wood. 

••••••••••••* 

As  I  write  I  learn  that  Mr.  Sicher  is  already 
formulating  plans  to  call  a  National  Congress  of 
manufacturers,  educators,  publicists  and  statesmen 
to  consider  this  whole  question  of  the  illiterate 
worker  and  the  Americanization  of  the  foreigner 
through  the  cooperation  of  the  factories,  schools 
and  government.  While  waiting  for  the  eugenic 
millennium  he  believes  in  improving  the  raw,  hu- 
man material  he  finds  at  hand.  That  his  faith  is 
justified  will  be  shown  in  the  chapters  that  follow. 


[6] 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   IMMIGRANT— A   POTENTIAL  AMERICAN 

In  a  letter  written  by  State  Commissioner  of 
Education  John  H.  Finley  to  President  J.  War- 
rant Castleman  of  the  Rochester  Board  of  Edu- 
cation, Dr.  Finley  said  that  but  two  important 
movements  for  the  education  of  the  foreigner 
had  attracted  his  attention  in  the  State  during 
the  past  year,  one  being  the  work  done  by  Mr. 
Charles  E.  Finch  in  the  Rochester  schools  and 
the  other  that  of  the  D.  E.  Sicher  Co.  of 
New  York  City. — Rochester  (N.  Y.)  Evening 
Times. 


There  is  a  menace  to  any  country  in  the  pres- 
ence of  a  large  number  of  illiterates.  Last 
year  in  New  York  City  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation conducted  a  regular  class  in  a  private 
factory  (D.  E.  Sicher  Co.).  This  is  cited 
merely  as  an  instance  of  the  flexibility  possible 
to  public  school  systems.  Only  such  effort  on 
the  part  of  the  department  of  education  sup- 
ported by  a  governmental  policy  can  work  out 
for  the  immigrant  an  educational  system  which 
will  make  him  socially  and  industrially  compe- 

[7] 


Where  Garments  and  Americans  Are  Made 

tent  in  American  life. — Albany  (N.  Y.)  Jour- 
nal, Dec.  i,  1914. 


THE  European  peasant,  oppressed  by  his  govern- 
ment and  exploited  by  great  landowners  and  privi- 
leged classes,  looks  longingly,  yearningly,  toward 
the  land  of  the  setting  sun.  When  his  ship  enters 
the  Narrows  of  New  York  Bay,  the  first  sight  that 
bursts  upon  his  vision  is  the  Statue  of  Liberty,  and 
he  lands  at  Ellis  Island,  not  a  ward  of  the  nation, 
but  a  potential  American.  Mere  naturalization  pa- 
pers will  not  effect  his  metamorphosis  into  a  real 
American.  This  can  only  be  effected  through  edu- 
cation and  America's  leading  educators  are  unani- 
mous in  the  opinion  that  the  Sicher  system  is  the 
best  yet  devised. 

Superficial  folk  with  narrow-gauge  brains  speak 
of  the  menace  of  immigration  as  though  it  were 
a  new  agency  to  work  evil  upon  the  native  born, 
but  it  is  as  old  as  the  eternal  hills  and  is  charac- 
teristic of  all  climes  and  all  ages.  Immigration  is 
no  longer  haphazard  as  in  earlier  days  of  the  Re- 
public, but  is  now  restricted  and  selective.  When 
the  native  American  objects  to  immigrants  on  the 
ground  that  they  huddle  together  amid  squalid,  un- 

[8] 


The  Immigrant — A  Potential  American 

sanitary  surroundings  in  crowded  sections  of  the 
cities,  lowering  standards  of  living  as  well  as  of 
wages,  he  should  remember  that  his  own  kindred 
own  these  rookeries  of  the  slums  and  are  the  em- 
ployers of  the  ignorant  foreigners.  There  is  in- 
deed need  of  the  "uplift"  among  the  unscrupulous 
rich. 

This  tendency  of  the  native  born  to  despise  the 
foreigner  worked  hardship  upon  the  Irish  in  the 
early  days,  just  as  to-day  it  works  hardship  upon 
the  Italian,  the  Jew  and  the  Slav.  The  native  Amer- 
ican is  too  often  forgetful  of  the  fact  that  he,  too, 
is  the  son  of  an  immigrant.  In  the  days  before 
the  ocean  steamships  and  the  trans-continental  rail- 
roads, when  man  battled  with  nature  for  the  con- 
quest of  a  continent  and  romance  was  in  the  land, 
it  was  the  immigrant  who  bore  the  brunt  of  the 
fighting  with  wild  beast  and  fiercer  savage. 

Our  first  immigrants  came  almost  wholly  from 
the  British  Islands,  especially  from  Ireland,  fur- 
nishing America  with  those  super-laborers,  the  red- 
blooded,  steel-muscled  navvies  (now  displaced  by 
Italians)  who  built  the  Hoosac  Tunnel  and  the  great 
railroads  that  are  spread  net-like  throughout  the 
continent. 

[9] 


Where  Garments  and  Americans  Are  Made 

After  1848  the  collapse  of  the  Revolutionary 
movement  in  Europe  started  the  vast  German  im- 
migration that  has  stopped  only  with  the  present 
European  war. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century 
northern  European  immigration  declined,  and  south- 
ern Europe,  notably  Italy,  began  sending  her  sons 
and  daughters  to  these  shores.  So,  too,  the  Slavic 
stock  of  Austria-Hungary,  and  the  oppressed  Jews 
of  Russia  and  Poland,  began  to  flow  into  the  great 
Melting  Pot  whose  ladle  is  Ellis  Island. 

The  reasons  that  induce  these  people  to  flock 
thither  are  the  desire  to  better  economic  conditions 
that  make  it  impossible  to  maintain  decent  living 
standards  in  the  home  lands;  to  escape  compulsory 
military  duty,  governmental  despotism,  ever  increas- 
ing tax  burdens,  religious  and  political  persecutions. 
It  was  this  last  reason  that  sent  the  Pilgrims  across 
the  Atlantic  in  the  Mayflower  and  that  brought  to 
America  thousands  of  Huguenots  after  the  Rev- 
ocation of  the  Edict  of  Nantes. 

Native  Americans  must  reconcile  themselves  to 
the  fact  that  immigration  is  a  permanent,  fixed  re- 
ality. The  world  has  no  longer  place  for  the  her- 
mit nation  with  an  ever-ingrowing  civilization  such 

[10] 


The  Immigrant — A  Potential  American 

as  characterized  old  China.  Ellis  Island  is  as  fixed 
an  institution  as  the  government  at  Washington. 
The  native  can  find  consolation,  however,  in  the 
knowledge  that  since  1882  the  United  States  has 
been  growing  every  year  more  strict,  so  that  now 
diseased  persons,  criminals,  defectives  and  paupers 
are  not  knowingly  poured  into  the  Melting  Pot. 
Contract  labor  laws  passed  since  1885  make  it  im- 
possible for  unscrupulous  employers  to  bring  over 
hordes  of  immigrants  whose  cheap  labor  supplants 
native  American  workmen,  and  the  doors  have  been 
closed  completely  to  the  yellow  races. 

It  is  with  the  later  immigration  sent  here  by  non- 
English  speaking  races,  alien  not  only  in  speech  but 
in  manner  of  life  from  ourselves,  that  the  Sicher 
System  of  Factory  Education  deals  specifically,  for 
this  immigration  is,  to  an  alarming  extent,  illiterate 
and  ignorant  of  decent,  sanitary  living  conditions. 

Dr.  and  Mrs.  Winthrop  Talbot  have  rendered 
services  of  great  value  in  connection  with  the  fac- 
tory school,  which  Mr.  Sicher  gratefully  acknowl- 
edges. Dr.  Talbot  is  America's  leading  authority 
on  the  subject  of  illiteracy  and  is  also  one  of  the 
editors  of  the  New  York  Medical  Journal.  Mrs. 
Talbot  is  a  Ph.D.  (Columbia  University)  and  a 


Where  Garments  and  Americans  Are  Made 

recognized  authority  throughout  the  United  States 
on  the  subject  of  vocational  training  for  girls. 

Dr.  Talbot  asserts  that,  since  1908,  the  United 
States  has  received  4,406,413  illiterate  immigrants 
from  Eastern  and  Southern  Europe,  all  ignorant  of 
English,  and  more  than  1,300,000  unable  to  read 
and  write  in  any  language.  In  New  York,  New 
Jersey  and  Pennsylvania  in  1910  there  were  873,812 
illiterates,  of  whom  767,587  were  either  aliens  or 
the  children  of  aliens. 

How  this  illiteracy  reacts  unfavorably  upon 
labor  Dr.  Talbot  points  out  in  the  following  ob- 
servations born  of  long  thinking  and  the  study  of 
statistics:  "There  is  a  close  connection  between 
illiteracy  and  the  sweat  shop.  Not  only  in  cities, 
but  also  in  country  towns  and  villages,  it  is  possi- 
ble for  an  ambitious  and  conscienceless  man  with  a 
little  capital  to  hire  space  in  a  tenement  or  loft 
building  and  exploit  the  labor  of  ignorant  immi- 
grants, thus  demoralizing  the  trade  and  working 
great  harm  to  the  people  whose  immediate  need 
for  wages  he  has  met.  He  thus  competes  unfairly 
with  the  established  firms  whose  success  depend 
on  good  management,  and  not  on  the  exploitation 
of  cheap  labor.  As  the  enlightened  employer  pays 

[12] 


The  Immigrant — A  Potential  American 

attention  more  and  more  closely  to  the  study  of 
waste  and  cost,  the  importance  of  the  human  me- 
chanics of  production,  in  distinction  to  machines 
and  materials,  is  made  clear  to  him.  He  perceives 
more  clearly  the  economic  disadvantages  which 
result  from  ignorance,  disease,  stupidity  and  lack 
of  dexterity  among  his  workers,  and  against  these 
evils  he  directs  his  energies." 

Night  schools  can  reach  but  a  small  portion  of 
these  illiterates,  Mr.  Sicher  is  convinced,  because 
of  the  lack  of  initiative  and  ambition  on  the  part 
of  the  foreigner,  and  the  greater  lure  of  the  saloon, 
the  dance  hall,  the  moving  picture  house,  and  the 
street  corner  which  often  becomes  to  him  what  the 
market  place  was  to  the  ancient  Greek,  with  the 
difference  that  the  Athenian  heard  notable  discus- 
sions of  public  matters  from  great  men,  and  learned 
great  truths  from  the  lips  of  philosophers,  whereas 
the  illiterate  foreigner  often  imbibes  unwholesome 
ideas  from  reckless  soap-box  orators. 

For  hyphenatism  and  illiteracy  there  is  only  one 
cure — the  factory  school  in  cooperation  with  the 
public  school  system. 


[13] 


CHAPTER  III 

A   SCHOOL   IN    A    FACTORY    CORNER— THE 
STORY  OF  MARJA 

I  wish  you  would  write  me  a  brief  but  com- 
plete statement  of  the  work  done  in  the  Sicher 
factory  school  last  winter.  With  your  permis- 
sion I  wish  to  put  the  substance  of  it  in  a  mul- 
tigraphed  letter  to  send  to  school  superintend- 
ents, high  school  principals  and  others  through- 
out the  country.  I  am  very  much  interested  in 
your  work.  You  have,  I  believe,  hit  upon  the 
most  practical  method  yet  for  teaching  these 
older  immigrant  boys  and  girls. — P.  P.  CLAX- 
TON,  Commissioner  United  States  Bureau  of 
Education,  to  Miss  LIZZIE  E.  RECTOR. 


I  had  to  travel  all  night  in  order  to  reach  my 
desk  this  morning,  but  I  do  not  regret  the  jour- 
ney with  all  its  discomforts  since  I  have  the 
memory  of  such  an  uncommon  and  stirring  ex- 
perience as  your  experiment  has  made  possible. 
I  hope  that  what  you  have  done  is  but  a 
prophecy  of  a  greater  achievement  in  this  field. 
— PROFESSOR  JOHN  H.  FINLEY  to  MR.  SICHER. 

[14] 


/  School  in  a  Factory  Corner — Story  of  Marja 

I  want  to  send  you  a  line  of  congratulation 
on  the  sociological  work  you  are  carrying  out 
at  your  shop.  I  have  been  following  it  up  with 
great  interest,  and  some  of  those  who  have  co- 
operated with  you,  like  Miss  Anne  C.  Hedges 
(now  Mrs.  Talbot),  are  people  I  am  particu- 
larly interested  in.  Your  work  makes  so  strong 
an  appeal  to  me  because  you  do  not  urge  the 
philanthropic  side,  but  are  convinced  that  it  will 
eventually  redound  to  the  benefit  of  the 
employer  through  the  increased  intelligence 
that  you  are  endeavoring  to  propagate. — DR. 
JULIUS  SACHS  to  MR.  SICKER. 


LET  us  typify  our  illiterate  immigrant  in  the  per- 
son of  Marja,  an  imaginary  peasant  girl  who  has 
been  in  America  but  a  short  time  when  we  make 
her  acquaintance  as  she  stands  beside  a  power  ma- 
chine in  the  muslin  underwear  factory  of  the  D.  E. 
Sicher  Co.  Perplexed  melancholy  is  depicted  in 
her  dark  expressive  face,  and  determination — deter- 
mination to  make  good  in  this  rushing,  enigmatical 
America  which  they  call  free  and  of  whose  citizenry 
she  has  elected  to  become  a  part. 

The  forewoman  to  whom  she  has  been  assigned 
by  Mr.  Jacob  Salsberg,  the  superintendent,  smiles 
as  she  tries  to  initiate  Marja  into  the  mysteries 


Where  Garments  and  Americans  Are  Made 

of  the  power  machine.  The  language  of  a  smile  is 
the  same  in  all  countries  and  the  tense  expression 
leaves  Marja's  features  at  this  note  of  sympathy, 
and  she  follows  closely  each  movement  of  her  in- 
structor. She  longs  to  understand  what  she  is  say- 
ing, and  means  to  do  so,  for  already  she  is  in  at- 
tendance at  the  factory  school  for  three-quarters 
of  an  hour  daily. 

In  her  own  country  Marja  had  learned  to  read 
and  write,  but  this  new  language  is  so  different  and 
so  difficult.  As  the  bell  rings  she  stops  her  ma- 
chine and  walks  eagerly  to  the  little  school  in  a 
corner  of  the  fifth  floor.  A  part  of  the  Recreation 
Hall  has  been  partitioned  off  to  screen  the  pupils 
from  the  inquisitive  eyes  of  other  factory  workers 
or  casual  visitors.  The  whir  of  machines  is  heard 
faintly  through  the  partition,  and  Marja  hears  the 
sounds  of  factory  work  going  on  around  her.  It 
all  reminds  her  that  her  pay  goes  on  while  she  is 
studying. 

This  little  classroom. is  very  simple  and  practical 
in  its  appointments.  Window  boxes  filled  writh 
growing  plants  add  a  softening  note  of  color,  and 
flags  of  all  nations  wave  as  peacefully  together  as 
if  they  had  never  represented  hostile  armies  facing 


A  School  in  a  Factory  Corner — Story  of  Marja 

each  other  in  a  life  and  death  struggle.  There  are 
maps  on  the  wall  and  charts  showing  that  other 
immigrant  girls  have  labored  successfully  in  the 
school  as  Marja  is  doing  now. 

These  charts  bear  witness  that  they  have  accom- 
plished seemingly  impossible  feats,  and  Marja  feels 
very  much  encouraged.  She  is  still  further  heart- 
ened when  she  sees  the  sweet  face  of  President 
Woodrow  Wilson's  daughter  Jessie  smiling  at  her 
from  its  place  on  the  wall.  Marja  knows  that  the 
President's  daughter  wishes  her  to  become  a  good 
American,  for  she  was  one  of  the  delegation  of 
factory  girls  that  accompanied  Mrs.  Claribel  Gedge 
Hill,  the  Service  Worker  at  the  Sicher  factory,  to 
Washington  to  present  Miss  Wilson  with  a  lace 
petticoat  for  her  trousseau,  just  before  her  mar- 
riage. Marja  feels  a  sense  of  pride  and  elation 
when  she  remembers  that  she  had  worked  upon 
that  petticoat. 

Marja  studies  all  the  more  eagerly,  as  she  is  un- 
der no  compulsion  to  attend  the  school.  She  does  it 
of  her  own  free  will  and  her  progress  is  rapid  be- 
cause her  presence  is  a  voluntary  act.  The  school 
was  started  October  14,  1913,  and  has  had  from 
the  beginning  the  cooperation  of  the  New  York 


Where  Garments  and  Americans  Are  Made 

Board  of  Education.  Mr.  Sicher  had  the  benefit 
of  advice  and  suggestions  from  such  practical  edu- 
cators and  vocational  experts  as  Miss  Lizzie  E.  Rec- 
tor, principal  of  Public  School  No.  4,  in  Rivington 
Street,  the  heart  of  a  great  foreign  population  in 
New  York,  and  Mrs.  Anne  Hedges  Talbot,  now  of 
the  New  York  State  Board  of  Education  and  ac- 
tively associated  with  Professor  Finley  and  Mr. 
Dean. 

When  Miss  Florence  Myers  took  her  place  before 
Marja  as  teacher,  the  little  peasant  girl  felt  sure 
that  she  would  learn.  Miss  Rector  had  selected  Miss 
Myers  from  her  own  staff  of  teachers  and  she  had 
chosen  wisely.  Miss  Myers  was  more  than  teacher 
to  the  class  that  included  Russians,  Hungarians, 
Poles,  Italians,  Austrians  and  Germans.  She  was 
vitally  interested  from  the  start  and  lay  awake  at 
night  contriving  ways  and  means  to  make  literate 
Americans  out  of  her  polyglot  pupils.  Many  of 
them  had  never  been  to  school  even  in  their  own 
country  and  it  was  necessary  to  arouse  their  in- 
terest in  things  of  everyday  life. 

Marja  and  the  other  girls  learn  English  in  the 
natural  way  in  which  a  language  is  acquired  by 
the  growing  child,  in  expressing  its  needs.  There 

[18] 


A  School  in  a  Factory  Corner — Story  of  Marja 

are  no  text-books  to  frighten  the  pupils  with  sug- 
gestion of  things  cryptic  and  occult.  They  are  not 
called  upon  to  memorize  such  gems  as  this  which 
are  characteristic  of  books  that  profess  to  teach 
languages:  "Did  the  Syrian  with  the  red  leather 
shoes  and  golden  heels  speak  to  the  Lithuanian  with 
the  red  hair  and  silken  robe?" 

Miss  Myers,  among  other  things,  showed  Marja 
a  picture  of  a  woman  combing  her  hair  and  ex- 
plained it  to  her  over  and  over  until  the  girl  un- 
derstood. A  few  weeks  later,  when  Marja  had 
learned  to  speak,  read  and  write  English  a  little, 
she  surprised  Miss  Myers  with  this  essay  on  the 
picture :  "She  wishes  to  comb  her  hair.  She  takes 
the  comb  in  her  hand.  She  combs  her  hair.  She 
takes  the  brush  in  her  hand.  She  brushes  her  hair. 
She  combs  and  brushes  her  hair  every  morning. 
She  washes  her  hair  with  soap  and  water."  Thus 
Marja  has  learned  personal  hygiene  and  English  at 
one  fell  stroke.  I  might  cite  hundreds  of  like  illus- 
trations of  Marja's  progress  from  a  green  peasant 
girl  to  an  intelligent  American  young  woman. 

Many  responsibilities  are  on  Marja's  shoulders 
and  she  has  come  to  America  to  make  money.  What 
more  simple  method  could  an  instructor  employ  to 


Where  Garments  and  Americans  Are  Made 

teach  arithmetic  than  to  use  the  currency  of  the 
Republic?  Silver  coins  and  greenbacks  were  Miss 
Myers'  only  text-books.  The  various  denomina- 
tions were  set  before  Marja  and  the  other  pupils 
and  they  were  taught  to  make  change.  Thus  they 
acquired  in  an  easy  manner  a  knowledge  of  addi- 
J:ion,  subtraction,  multiplication  and  division,  in- 
culcated along  with  a  familiarity  with  the  money 
that  they  must  use  daily. 

Arithmetical  knowledge  leads  to  the  subject  of 
personal  accounts  which  Marja  is  taught  to  keep, 
and  when  weights  and  measures  are  introduced  she 
is  interested  because  of  her  economic  necessities. 
She  soon  learns  thrift  and  in  its  train  follows  its 
natural  handmaiden,  orderliness. 

With  Marja  the  dull,  monotonous  grind  of  work- 
ing a  certain  number  of  hours  a  week  for  a  fixed 
wage  is  gradually  changing  into  a  thirst  for  knowl- 
edge and  she  sings  at  her  work,  the  whir  of  the 
machine  acting  as  an  accompaniment.  Quick,  alert 
movements  tell  of  increasing  mental  power.  As  she 
runs  up  the  long  seams  of  the  muslin  undergarment 
she  recites  to  herself  the  history  of  its  evolution 
that  she  has  learned  in  the  little  factory  school.  She 
allows  herself  to  be  carried  in  fancy  to  the  cotton 

[20] 


A  School  in  a  Factory  Corner — Story  of  Marja 

fields  of  Dixie  and  she  sees  the  negroes  picking  the 
white  fluff  under  the  scorching  sun.  She  watches 
the  operation  of  preparing  the  commodity  for  use 
and  the  labor  of  packing  it  into  bales.  She  folfows 
it  north  by  steamship  and  rail,  thus  receiving  a 
lesson  in  geography,  and  when  it  is  brought  to  the 
mills  and  the  spinning  and  weaving  commence, 
Marja  is  intensely  interested,  for  she  knows  that 
soon  many  huge  bolts  of  it  will  be  received  at  the 
factory  where  she  is  employed  to  be  cut  into  gar- 
ments on  which  later  she  and  the  other  five  or  six 
hundred  girls  around  her  will  work. 

Marja's  awakening  mentality  carries  her  interest 
to  the  mechanism  of  the  power  machine  that  she 
operates  and  she  studies  it  closely,  for  she  now  re- 
alizes that  a  machine  is  useless  without  intelligent 
human  direction.  She  is  no  longer  like  the  woman 
who  put  raw  meat  into  her  fireless  cooker  with- 
out either  hot  water  or  hot  disks  and  complained 
that  it  did  not  cook.  Marja  could  tell  that  benighted 
person  that  successful  operation  is  due  entirely  to 
human  initiative. 

Since  coming  to  America  Marja  has  written 
many  letters  to  her  friends  in  the  old  country,  but 
here  she  is  making  new  friends  to  whom  it  will  be 

[21] 


Where  Garments  and  Americans  Are  Made 

necessary  to  write  in  English.  She  learns  in  the 
factory  school  to  express  her  ideas  in  good  English, 
to  spell  correctly,  and  to  group  words  properly  in 
sentences.  This  leads  by  natural  gradation  to  the 
composing  of  personal  and  business  letters.  Post- 
office  regulations  and  methods  she  learns  by  actual 
experience.  When  she  has  mailed  her  letter  she  is 
advised  to  trace  its  journey  on  the  map  or  globe 
and  another  lesson  in  geography  is  acquired,  never 
to  be  forgotten.  She  traces  imaginary  letters  to 
different  points  in  America  and  to  the  furthermost 
parts  of  the  earth. 

It  is  essential  in  her  study  of  means  of  commu- 
nication that  she  know  how  to  get  about  the  city 
in  which  she  lives.  Practice  soon  makes  the  tele- 
phone book  and  directory  open  books  to  her  and 
through  these  she  is  initiated  into  the  mysteries  of 
the  wonderful  system  of  alphabetical  arrangement 
which  will  make  it  easy  for  her  later  to  use  the 
dictionary.  A  city  map  is  given  her  and  with  slight 
instruction  she  is  able  to  find  her  way  about  and 
to  recognize  the  important  public  buildings  and 
points  of  interest.  There  is  a  telephone  in  the  class- 
room and  Marja  is  taught  its  use.  Actual  telegraph 
blanks  are  used  so  that  she  may  learn  how  to  send 

[22] 


A  School  in  a  Factory  Corner — Story  of  Marja 

messages  by  wire  and  cable  to  all  parts  of  the  world. 
The  eye,  you  will  note,  is  trained  as  well  as  the 
ear  by  this  method  of  reaching  and  awakening  the 
illiterate  mind. 

With  her  increased  intelligence  comes  increased 
efficiency  and  Marja  sees  the  contents  of  her  en- 
velope growing  as  the  pay  days  come  and  go.  This 
is  a  keen  incentive  and  she  feels  that  the  more  she 
knows  of  her  adopted  country  and  its  ways,  the 
more  will  be  her  earning  capacity.  The  word  Civics 
is  not  included  in  Marja's  vocabulary,  but  when  she 
finds  the  neighborhood  in  which  she  lives  improv- 
ing and  speaks  of  it  to  her  teacher,  a  full  explana- 
tion is  given  her  which  involves  a  knowledge  of 
history,  and  in  the  Sicher  school  this  means  par- 
ticularly United  States  history. 

Marja  had  .heard  vaguely  in  her  own  country  of 
Washington  and  Lincoln.  Now  she  learns  all  about 
them  and  about  the  other  statesmen  who  have  built 
up  this  wonderful  country  that  is  rapidly  becoming 
hers  also.  She  learns  of  the  origin  and  meaning 
of  legal  holidays,  of  our  plan  of  government,  so 
different  from  her  own.  She  learns  the  true  mean- 
ing of  patriotism  and  this  leads  to  a  comprehension 
of  the  ideal  of  true  citizenship. 

[23] 


Where  Garments  and  Americans  Are  Made 

Many  practical  things  are  taught  in  Marja's  lit- 
tle factory  school,  things  for  which  she  has  daily 
use,  and  although  she  has  not  heard  of  John  Wesley 
and  may  never  hear  of  him,  she  soon  indorses  his 
principle  that  "Cleanliness  is  next  to  godliness/' 
Hygiene  is  taught,  and  personal  cleanliness — how  to 
keep  her  work  and  home  surroundings  neat  and 
tidy. 

Physical  culture  is  a  part  of  the  course  of  study 
and  serves  to  offset  false  habits  of  life  and  to  im- 
prove the  health.  The  drudgery  of  work  and  the 
long  periods  at  the  machine  seem  less  arduous  after 
ten  minutes  devoted  to  gymnastic  exercises  which 
include  proper  breathing,  etc. 

Marja  is  interested  in  the  first  aid  to  the  in- 
jured demonstration,  as  on  several  occasions  it  was 
necessary  for  her  to  come  to  the  relief  of  an  injured 
comrade. 

The  nutritive  value  of  foods  and  dietetics  are 
explained  and  Marja  prepares  her  simple  meals  and 
does  her  buying  with  intelligence. 

Step  by  step,  and  all  in  an  eminently  practical 
way,  she  gains  knowledge  of  important  ordinances, 
health  and  tenement  house  laws,  traffic  regulations, 
the  fire  drill,  and  safety  first  principles.  She  comes 


A  School  in  a  Factory  Corner — Story  of  Marja 

to  see  that  law  is  not  tyranny  and  that  license  is 
not  liberty,  and  when  she  goes  a-gypsying  to  the 
public  parks  on  her  holidays  she  will  not  be  among 
those  that  leave  the  remains  of  lunch  or  old  news- 
papers to  litter  up  the  public's  breathing  places.  All 
this  develops  in  her  ideas  of  order,  discipline,  self- 
esteem  and  the  courtesy  that  is  always  mindful  of 
the  rights  of  others. 


[25] 


CHAPTER  IV 
FIRST   GRADUATING   CLASS 

The  factory  school  isn't  an  experiment  any 
longer,  but  a  success. — MARGUERITE  MOOERS 
MARSHALL. 


If  it  (the  Sicher  School  system)  could  only 
be  extended,  it  would  reach  thousands  of  men 
and  women  who,  coming  to  America  in  the  full 
expectation  of  learning  English,  find  the  work 
too  hard,  hours  of  leisure  too  short,  and  so- 
cial surroundings  wholly  unfavorable. — New 
York  Evening  Post. 


Forty  immigrant  lassies  with  one  year's 
teaching,  forty-five  minutes  a  day,  have 
bloomed  out  into  intelligent,  educated  and  cul- 
tivated young  women.  And  it  has  all  been  done 
with  the  aid  of  the  Board  of  Education  right 
in  the  shop  where  they  work — splendid  exam- 
ple of  altruism  in  modern  business. — ZOE 
BECKLEY  in  New  York  Evening  Mail 


First  Graduating  Class 

It  is  odd  indeed  that  with  all  our  schools, 
churches,  philanthropies,  sociologists,  econo- 
mists, reformers,  charitable  societies  and 
municipal  or  legislative  investigators  and  ex- 
aminers, we  have  not  provided  this  kind  of 
instruction  long  ago.  But  it  is  better  late  than 
never. — New  York  Evening  World. 


This  reduction  of  humanitarianism  to  a 
golden  rule  will  be  closely  watched  by  the  en- 
tire business  world.  The  experiment  may  not 
only  result  in  an  industrial  renaissance,  but  an 
elevating  influence  will  be  carried  into  immi- 
grant families,  generally  ignorant  of  civic  re- 
sponsibility, eugenics  and  right  living. — Lima 
(Ohio)  News. 


IT  was  a  proud  moment  for  Marja  when,  on  the 
night  of  June  4,  1914,  she  took  her  place  with  forty 
other  girls  on  the  platform  built  by  the  factory 
boys  in  the  center  of  the  Recreation  Hall  of  the 
Sicher  factory,  as  one  of  the  first  graduates  of  this 
destined-to-be-historic  factory  school. 

Her  associate  graduates  were  all  between  the  ages 
of  eighteen  and  twenty- three  years  and  but  eight 
months  before  this  test-of -efficiency  night  not  one 
of  them  could  express  herself  in  English. 

[27] 


Where  Garments  and  Americans  Are  Made 

Each  girl  had  made  her  own  filmy  white  gown 
for  this  occasion  and  the  fresh  daintiness  of  each 
was  but  another  tribute  to  the  efficacy  of  increased 
mentality. 

Under  the  direction  of  the  Board  of  Education 
and  amongst  such  educators  and  social  workers  as 
Dr.  J.  H.  Finley,  of  the  New  York  State  Board  of 
Education ;  William  H.  Maxwell,  city  Superintend- 
ent of  the  New  York  Public  Schools;  Dr.  Winthrop 
Talbot,  Mrs.  Anne  Hedges  Talbot,  Miss  Lizzie  E. 
Rector,  Miss  Anne  Morgan,  Marja  and  her  asso- 
ciates felt  encouraged,  especially  when  they  found 
that  these  men  and  women  were  able  to  understand 
them  in  their  newly  acquired  English. 

District  Superintendent  Henry  E.  Jenkins  of  New 
York's  public  school  system  presided  and  the  girls 
felt  exultation  within  them  as  he  spoke  of  the  day 
when  this  unique  factory  school  system  would 
spread  throughout  the  country,  everywhere  slaying 
the  dragon  of  illiteracy. 

As  the  exercises  opened  Marja  and  the  girls  sa- 
luted the  Stars  and  Stripes — the  flag  of  their  adop- 
tion, and  in  chorus  sang  "America"  with  a  fervency 
that  proved  that  it  was  now  their  anthem  as  much 
as  it  was  the  anthem  of  any  who  traced  their  de- 


First  Graduating  Class 

scent  to  the  Mayflower  stock  or  a  first  family  of 
Virginia — immigrants  of  an  earlier  day. 

In  the  newly  acquired  English  and  with  delight- 
ful intonation  little  Rebecca  Meyer,  Austrian  born, 
delivered  the  greeting.  'This  education,"  she  said 
in  her  pretty  way,  "has  given  us  a  better  and  broader 
view  of  life  and  of  our  surroundings.  We  see  what 
a  power  education  is  and  how  many  opportunities 
it  offers  for  our  advancement  in  life.  We  find  pleas- 
ure in  our  work  now,  for  we  have  a  better  under- 
standing of  our  machines  and  materials.  We  hope 
to  show  you  to-night  in  how  many  ways  we  have 
benefited  by  this  instruction.  If  we  make  mistakes, 
please  overlook  them.  Remember  how  hard  it  must 
have  been  for  us  to  grasp  all  these  new  things,  how 
short  a  time  we  have  had  to  learn  them." 

Minnie  Spinrad,  Pauline  Deutsch,  Ethel  Brown, 
Mollie  Tobowitz,  Mary  Wilpan,  and  Rose  Clemens 
read  essays  on  the  evolution  of  an  undergarment; 
Antoinette  Flore  went  through  the  test  of  showing 
how  to  make  out  a  work  day  report,  and  golden- 
haired  Josie  Yarashevitz  told  how  to  go  about  the 
getting  of  a  position. 

Writing  of  it  afterward  the  New  York  Evening 
Post  said :  "How  their  hands  did  shake  as  they  held 

[29] 


Where  Garments  and  Americans  Are  Made 

the  paper.  Perhaps  yours  would  have  shaken  too, 
if  you  had  been  telling  of  the  evolution  of  an  under- 
garment, in  Polish  or  Russian,  having  studied  the 
language  for  a  few  weeks." 

The  hot  June  night  in  the  hall,  crowded  with  in- 
terested spectators  from  all  over  the  city,  made  a 
trying  ordeal  of  the  work  in  physical  training,  but 
the  class  unflinchingly  went  through  the  schedule  of 
deep  breathing,  forward  bending,  running  in  place, 
and  various  other  exercises  that  are  of  infinite  bene- 
fit to  girls  who  spend  long  hours  sitting  at  machines. 

Mr.  Dudley  D.  Sicher,  founder  of  the  School  and 
the  man  behind  the  idea,  spoke  briefly,  but  hope- 
fully of  the  day  when  the  factory  school  would  be  a 
nation-wide  institution. 

"In  order  to  extend  this  work  of  reducing  il- 
literacy among  the  half  million  adults,  mostly  immi- 
grants in  the  City  of  New  York,  the  active  coopera- 
tion," he  declared,  "of  school  authorities,  employees, 
labor  unions,  industrial  authorities  and  the  public  is 
needed.  It  is  the  present  belief  of  the  firm  that  the 
workers  who  have  been  thus  trained  have  gained 
from  twenty  to  seventy  per  cent,  in  efficiency." 

Marja   glowed.      She    had   become   one   of   the 

[30] 


First  Graduating  Class 

literate  and  efficient,  and  in  her  happiness  she  forgot 
the  trials  and  vexations  of  her  first  lessons. 

In  an  editorial  review,  the  next  day,  of  this  fea- 
ture of  the  graduation,  the  New  York  Evening 
World  said:  "What  the  Sicher  School  for  Immi- 
grants has  done  for  these  girls,  through  brief,  daily 
instruction  on  the  premises  where  they  work,  must 
at  least  stir  the  public  to  a  realization  of  the  wonder- 
ful possibilities  that  lie  in  the  factory  school." 

Dr.  Maxwell  was  emphatic  in  his  endorsement  of 
the  system  and  the  good  it  was  destined  to  do.  He 
told  a  story  of  a  girl,  foreign  born,  and  ignorant  of 
English,  who  had  lost  an  arm  while  working  at  a 
machine.  Marja  listened  eagerly  and  nodded  assent 
when  Dr.  Maxwell  declared  that  the  accident  could 
not  have  happened  had  the  girl  received  training 
such  as  is  given  in  the  Sicher  school. 

"The  accident  could  have  been  prevented,"  Dr. 
Maxwell  said,  "if  the  employer  had  taught  her  first 
the  common  tongue  of  communication.  I  pledged 
myself  then  to  leave  no  stone  unturned  to  develop 
our  school  system  and  branch  it  out  among  our  for- 
eign born  workers.  This  graduation  class  is  the  first 
result,  and  it  is  creditable  to  all  concerned.  When 
will  the  conscience  of  New  Yorkers  awake  and  make 


Where  Garments  and  Americans  Are  Made 

them  unloose  the  purse-strings  of  the  Board  of  Esti- 
mate and  Apportionment  to  establish  trade  schools 
that  should  be  the  next  step  in  industrial  education  ?" 

Dr.  Finley,  who  had  put  aside  every  other  engage- 
ment so  that  he  could  be  present  to  see  Marja  and 
her  friends  receive  their  certificates  of  literacy, 
called  forth  much  enthusiasm  by  his  whole-hearted, 
sincere  indorsement  of  the  system. 

"New  York,"  said  Dr.  Finley,  "is  the  only  State 
in  the  Union  that  has  not  decreased  its  illiteracy  in 
the  last  ten  years."  Then,  while  Marja  and  the  girls 
led  the  applause,  he  added  this  prophecy  born  of 
what  he  had  seen  that  evening :  "In  the  next  decade 
New  York  will  show  a  literacy  percentage  as  big  as 
even  that  of  Massachusetts." 

Mary  Antin,  author  of  "The  Promised  Land," 
perhaps  more  than  any  one  else,  interested  Marja, 
for  Mary  Antin,  like  herself,  had  come  here  an  im- 
migrant girl,  with  little  in  her  trunk  save  a  Pan- 
dora box  with  its  precious  freight  of  hope. 

Marja  had  this  in  mind,  when,  her  voice  broken 
with  emotion,  Mary  Antin  said :  "Oh,  girls,  you 
must  understand  it.  You  are  not  just  Minnie  and 
Mary  and  Mollie  and  Rose.  You  are  witnesses,  each 
one  of  you.  As  you  go  out,  show  how  much  you 

[32] 


First  Graduating  Class 

have  grown  by  such  things  that  were  done  here. 
You  prove  that  it  is  worth  while.  Everywhere  you 
go  you  are  witnesses  that  America  is  sincere.  We, 
the  people  of  this  country,  mean  to  live  up  to  all 
these  things  for  which  our  flag  stands." 

Marja  could  hardly  keep  her  seat  when  Mary 
Antin,  her  face  alight  with  the  fire  that  burned 
within  her,  turned  to  the  girls  and  said : 

"Talk  about  being  shut  up  in  factory  walls !  Fac- 
tory walls  could  not  keep  your  share  of  opportunity 
from  you.  It  came  to  you.  Your  teachers  came  to 
you  at  your  work  and  brought  you  that  which  is 
your  own,  and  as  you  take  it,  as  you  use  it,  so  will 
the  world  come  to  believe  gradually  more  and  more 
in  those  things  for  which  we  stand  as  a  people. 
Your  opportunity  is  endless.  See  how  it  found  you, 
even  inside  of  your  workshop!  You  have  better 
chances  than  some  who  are  free  outside  and  do  not 
know  how  to  use  their  freedom.  .  .  .  You  will  help 
this  country  solve  her  problems." 

"But  what  of  Marja?"  I  hear  the  reader  say. 
"Did  she  not  speak?"  She  smiles  out  at  you  from 
the  faces  of  all  of  them,  for  Marja  is  a  composite 
girl,  a  little  of  each. 

[33] 


CHAPTER  V 

THE    SERVICE    DEPARTMENT 

Cooperation  Means  Success. — Motto  of  the 
Sicker  Employees. 


ONE  day  while  Marja  was  looking  at  a  picture  of 
an  Egyptian  pyramid,  Miss  Myers  told  her  the  story 
of  its  building — how  one  hundred  thousand  slaves 
worked  for  twenty  years  under  the  urge  of  the  lash, 
so  that  an  old  Pharaoh  might  have  an  imposing  tomb 
to  rest  in  when  his  fitful  life  was  ended.  Marja 
wonders  what  the  old  Egyptian  tyrant  would  think 
of  modern  labor  conditions  were  he  to  enter  the 
Recreation  Hall  of  the  Sicher  factory  during  the 
noon  hour  and  see  the  employees,  some  dancing  to 
music  by  the  piano  or  victrola,  others  playing  games 
or  looking  over  fashion  or  other  magazines  laid  out 
on  a  long  table,  and  still  others  lounging  in  com- 
fortable chairs  in  utter  relaxation.  On  special  days 
he  would  see  employees  listening  to  instructive  lec- 
tures or  enjoying  a  musical  entertainment. 

[34] 


The  Service  Department 

No  doubt  Pharaoh  would  hold  up  his  idle  hands 
in  deprecation  of  "these  degenerate  days,"  but 
Marja  would  pull  his  ancient  beard  in  true  Amer- 
ican fashion  and  exclaim,  "You  old  fossil,  do  not 
dare  to  compare  your  anaemic,  spiritless  workers 
with  these  free,  happy  young  Americans  who  could 
aspire  to  anything,  even  the  throne  of  Egypt  were 
it  worth  while." 

When  Mr.  Sicher  looked  about  him  for  an  expert 
to  take  charge  of  his  Service  Department,  he  found 
the  ideal  person  in  Mrs.  Claribel  Gedge  Hill  of 
Cleveland,  O.  Mrs.  Hill  is  a  registered  nurse,  and 
at  the  time  of  the  Dayton  flood  was  among  the  first 
to  be  sent  by  the  Red  Cross  Society  to  the  relief  of 
the  sufferers.  In  rubber  boots  and  coat  she  worked 
day  and  night  in  a  dimly  lighted  public  building 
where  the  victims  had  flocked  for  safety.  She 
brought  to  Mr.  Sicher's  Service  Department  the  zeal 
and  tirelessness  perhaps  born  of  the  exactions  of 
trained  nursing  and  a  career  in  sociological  work. 

The  broad  democracy  of  her  mind  made  her  the 
very  person  for  this  service  in  a  factory  where  so 
many  nationalities  are  employed.  With  Mr.  Sicher 
and  Mr.  Salsberg,  Mrs.  Hill  faced  and  solved  each 
problem  that  presented  itself  in  establishing  for  the 

[35] 


Where  Garments  and  Americans  Are  Made 

first  time  a  Service  Department  in  a  muslin  under- 
wear factory  in  New  York  City. 

Space  on  the  fifth  floor  was  allotted  for  a  large 
Recreation  Hall,  and  this  was  furnished  with  plenty 
of  comfortable  chairs,  a  piano,  a  victrola,  with 
many  dance  and  popular  song  records,  and  long 
tables  containing  magazines  and  books.  An  emer- 
gency hospital  was  built  in  one  corner  of  the  Recrea- 
tion Hall  with  bed  and  medicine  cabinets,  and  also  a 
small  private  office  where  Mrs.  Hill  has  many  talks 
of  a  confidential  nature  with  employees  in  distress. 

Mr.  Sicher  is  ever  ready  to  put  his  hand  in  his 
pocket  to  relieve  the  sufferings  of  his  employees. 
At  his  expense  many  girls,  run  down  in  health,  have 
been  sent  for  weeks  and  even  months  to  health  re- 
sorts until  they  were  cured  and  could  resume  work. 
In  the  little  hospital  Mrs.  Hill  assured  me  that  she 
often  treats,  in  a  single  day,  the  minor  ills  of  twenty 
employees. 

In  Mrs.  Hill's  tiny  private  office  is  also  a  free  cir- 
culating library,  a  branch  of  the  New  York  Public 
Library,  maintained  for  the  convenience  of  the  em- 
ployees. Also  in  cooperation  with  the  New  York 
Public  Library  a  series  of  talks  has  been  given  in 

[36] 


The  Service  Department 

the  Recreation  Hall  by  the  head  of  the  Story  Telling 
Department. 

The  Service  Department  had  been  in  existence  a 
little  more  than  three  years  when  the  European  War 
broke  out  and  Mrs.  Hill  received  a  call  from  the 
Red  Cross  Society  to  be  in  readiness.  With  the 
obedience  of  a  good  soldier  she  packed  her  trunk, 
but  Mr.  Sicher  proved  to  her  that  her  place  was 
with  the  immigrant  girls  who  were  in  the  transition, 
formative  stage,  from  green,  illiterate  foreigners, 
to  Americans,  unhampered  by  a  hyphen. 

After  Marja  had  been  in  attendance  at  the  factory 
school  for  several  months  she  was  able  to  spell  out 
the  notices  on  the  bulletin  boards  placed  throughout 
the  factory.  She  knew  on  just  what  day  there 
would  be  in  the  Recreation  Hall  one  of  the  series  of 
lectures  on  health  and  sanitation  given  in  coopera- 
tion with  the  New  York  Board  of  Health;  on  what 
day  would  fall  the  weekly  Song  Review;  on  what 
day  there  would  be  music  to  feed  her  hungry  soul. 
Marja  could  not  yet  afford  to  go  to  the  opera,  but 
she  soon  made  friends  with  one  of  the  girls  who 
would  read  aloud  and  explain  to  her  the  librettos  of 
the  operas  which  could  be  borrowed  from  Mrs.  Hill 
from  time  to  time. 

[37] 


Where  Garments  and  Americans  Are  Made 

Marja  is  much  amused  when  she  tries  to  learn 
the  American  dances  one  noon  each  week,  but  she 
is  full  of  youthful  energy  and  with  her  expanding 
mentality  yearns  to  learn  everything.  She  reads  the 
books  and  magazines,  and  her  artistic  side  finds 
pleasure  in  the  pictures.  In  the  fashion  magazines 
she  selects  simple  dresses,  which  she  makes  herself 
in  the  dress-making  class  which  is  held  one  evening 
a  week  under  the  direction  of  a  competent  teacher. 
The  charge  of  fifty  cents  for  five  lessons  is  made 
for  this,  but  with  pencil  and  paper  Marja  can  now 
figure  out  how  much  she  can  save  on  her  clothes  by 
this  method.  She  finds,  too,  that  she  can  buy  ma- 
terial at  wholesale  prices  at  the  factory,  which  is  a 
saving  on  many  of  her  garments.  This  is  the  only 
night  work  that  Marja  does,  and  it  is  on  but  one 
night  in  the  week. 

Of  course  Marja  attends  the  evening  entertain- 
ments that  are  held  in  the  Recreation  Hall  during 
the  winter.  At  these  she  meets  most  of  the  girls 
who  are  in  other  departments  and  on  other  floors 
than  the  one  on  which  she  works.  She  also  meets 
the  young  men  and  the  sweethearts  from  the  outside, 
who  are  invited  to  come.  Marja  dances  and  joins 
in  most  of  the  sports  and  goes  home  refreshed  and 

[38] 


The  Service  Department 

happy  that  she  can  take  even  a  small  part  in  the 
pleasures  of  these  people  who  are  fast  becoming  her 
people. 

There  are  noon  hours  when  the  Recreation  Hall 
is  not  being  used  for  lectures  or  special  entertain- 
ments, and  it  is  then  that  Marja  might  have  desig- 
nated the  noise  as  "Bedlam  let  loose,"  had  she 
known  what  that  phrase  means.  Some  of  the  girls 
are  dancing  to  the  music  of  the  victrola,  others  play 
the  piano  and  still  others  are  singing  snatches  of 
song.  Marja  often  employs  this  leisure  time  in 
punching  the  bag  or  using  the  dumbbells  or  wands 
placed  in  the  Recreation  Hall  for  the  use  of  the  em- 
ployees. In  the  gymnasium  class  held  once  a  week, 
she  also  learns  something  of  folk  dancing. 

There  was  one  memorable  day  when  Marja  re- 
ceived a  small  box  containing  a  $2.50  gold  piece  for 
making  a  suggestion  that  was  an  economical  saving 
for  the  factory,  and  was  told  that  any  employee  who 
dropped  a  practical  suggestion  into  the  Suggestion 
Box,  which  was  adopted,  would  receive  a  like  coin. 

Under  Mrs.  Hill's  direction  a  Vacation  Fund  Sta- 
tion is  maintained,  and  each  week  Marja  puts  a 
small  sum  away  that  she  may  have  one  glorious 
week  in  the  summer  among  the  green  fields  and 

[39] 


Where  Garments  and  Americans  Are  Made 

country  lanes,  where  rustic  bridges  span  rocky- 
bedded  brooks,  and  where  birds  and  other  woodsy 
creatures  vociferously  proclaim  their  freedom  just 
as  she  desires  to  voice  her  appreciation  of  her  own 
freedom  in  free  America. 

Sicher  factory  employees  work  but  fifty  hours  a 
week  whereas  the  State  law  allows  fifty-four  hours. 
These  four  extra  hours  Marja  uses  advantageously. 
She  subscribes  twenty-five  cents  a  year  for  the 
monthly  house  organ,  "Threads  and  Thoughts."  In 
this  little  factory  newspaper  she  gleans  many  an 
idea  about  the  doings  of  others  in  the  factory — mar- 
riages of  the  girls,  births  and  deaths.  She  reads 
poetry  and  short  articles  written  by  employees, 
stories,  health  articles  and  useful  information.  Fre- 
quently the  whole  month  goes  by  before  Marja 
reaches  the  last  page,  but  she  persists,  for  she  knows 
that  this  is  but  another  link  in  the  chain  of  her 
learning. 

Marja  has  obtained  much  valuable  information 
from  the  talks  on  health,  hygiene  and  the  nutritive 
value  of  foods,  and  all  this  knowledge  stands  her  in 
good  stead  as  she  patronizes  the  factory  lunch  coun- 
ter where  she  can  get  a  substantial  meal  at  cost 
price.  She  no  longer  gulps  her  food.  Horace 

[40] 


The  Service  Department 

Fletcher   has  become   more  than  a  name  to  her. 

Marja  came  to  Mrs.  Hill  one  morning  with  a  se- 
vere cold  which  she  had  taken  from  sitting  all  day 
with  wet  feet,  and  was  pleasantly  surprised  to  hear 
that  a  pair  of  dry  stockings  could  have  been  pur- 
chased of  Mrs.  Hill  for  ten  cents,  and  that  if  re- 
turned laundered,  a  rebate  would  be  made  of  five 
cents.  She  also  finds  that  on  rainy  nights  she  can 
rent  an  umbrella  for  five  cents  from  a  full  stock  kept 
on  hand  in  Mrs.  Hill's  office. 

COOPERATION  MEANS  SUCCESS. — In  time  Marja 
comes  to  know  that  this  motto  of  the  Sicher  em- 
ployees means  that  this  is  a  business  home  where 
each  person  employed  is  responsible  for  cleanliness 
and  orderliness.  She  comes  to  see  the  foolishness 
of  unnecessary  noise,  the  defacing  of  walls,  and 
waste  of  materials.  Her  efficiency  increases  in  pro- 
portion to  the  understanding  developing  within  her 
that  she  is  only  one  of  six  hundred  persons  in  one 
building,  and  that  privileges  that  cannot  be  granted 
to  every  one  should  not  be  asked  for  by  individuals. 
She  has  shed  the  hyphen.  Her  birth  land  has  be- 
come a  memory  of  miseries  that  are  past;  America, 
a  living  reality  where  all  may  woo  OPPORTUNITY. 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE   SCHOOL   AS   IT   IS   TO-DAY 

I  have  learned  to  love  America,  my  new 
country.  In  return  for  all  that  I  am  getting  I 
like  to  become  a  citizen.  A  woman  can  become 
a  citizen  just  the  same  as  a  man.  A  good  citi- 
zen means  that  I  must  live  right,  be  a  good 
member  of  my  family  and  keep  the  laws  of  the 
country.  After  the  war  I  am  sending  for  my 
little  son.  I  am  glad  I  can  teach  him  the  things 
I  have  learned  so  he  will  grow  up  to  be  just  as 
proud  of  America  as  I  am. — HELEN  BLUMEN- 
THAL,  factory  worker,  after  few  months'  in- 
struction in  English  at  Sicker  School. 


Kindly  keep  in  touch  with  me  from  time  to 
time  and  keep  me  informed  of  any  new  devel- 
opments. Can  your  Company  not  participate 
in  the  nation-wide  campaign  to  be  carried  on 
by  this  Division  for  the  purpose  of  increasing 
the  attendance  of  aliens  upon  night  schools  and 
the  facilities  for  their  instruction  therein  ? — H. 
H.  WHEATON,  Specialist  in  Immigrant  Edu- 
cation, Bureau  of  Education,  Department  of 

[42] 


The  School  as  It  Is  To-day 

Interior,  Washington,  D.  C.,  to  Miss  RAY  J. 
HEILBRONER,  Teacher  at  Sicker  School. 


Our  Committee  is  very  much  interested  in 
the  classes  for  immigrant  girls  which  you  have 
charge  of  at  the  D.  E.  Sicher  Co.  In  accord- 
ance with  our  conference  of  Tuesday  of  this 
week  will  you  please  be  sure  to  send  us  a  copy 
of  the  report  of  the  work  being  done  this  year 
when  you  complete  the  preparation  of  it  ?  Have 
you  a  report  of  the  educational  activities  of 
last  year?  We  were  glad  to  be  of  service  in 
supplying  you  with  literature,  teaching  material 
and  suggestions  for  your  graduation  exercises. 
— R.  E.  COLE,  for  National  Americanization 
Committee,  to  Miss  RAY  J.  HEILBRONER,  May 
5, 


THE  Sicher  Factory  School  is  in  no  sense  static. 
Beginning  as  an  experiment  in  October,  1913,  it 
soon  passed  beyond  the  experimental  stage  and,  in 
practical  results,  has  proved  its  worth  as  an  original 
educational  idea. 

To-day  the  school  has  developed  far  beyond  its 
old  curriculum,  and  new  ideas  are  being  constantly 
introduced  by  Miss  Ray  J.  Heilbroner,  the  successor 
of  the  first  teacher,  Miss  Florence  Myers,  now  the 

[43] 


Where  Garments  and  Americans  Are  Made 

wife  of  Mr.  Joseph  Feinberg.  Miss  Myers  and  Miss 
Heilbroner  both  taught  in  Miss  Rector's  school  in 
Rivington  Street,  and  the  work  in  the  factory  school 
is  under  the  direct  supervision  of  this  able  educator. 
Miss  Rector  is  always  ready  to  discuss  with  the 
teacher  ideas,  methods  of  teaching,  and  important 
problems  that  arise  in  this  intensely  interesting 
work. 

Miss  Heilbroner,  the  present  teacher,  is  young, 
full  of  enthusiasm  and  thoroughly  equipped  for  her 
task.  The  results  she  obtains  are  all  the  more  effec- 
tive and  enduring  because  of  the  profound  interest 
and  intelligent  sympathy  she  has  all  along  shown 
toward  the  immigrant,  and  the  problems  that  face 
the  Marjas  within  our  gates. 

On  October  14,  1916,  the  third  anniversary  of 
the  founding  of  the  little  factory  school,  I  called 
upon  Miss  Heilbroner  and  listened  to  her  lucid  ex- 
planations to  her  pupils  of  things  of  every-day  life, 
which,  to  the  fastidious  young  lady  "finishing"  her 
education  at  a  "Seminary"  might  be  contemptuously 
ignored  as  homely,  but  which  constitute  the  funda- 
mentals of  real  living. 

Two  of  the  girls  with  whom  I  talked,  "Charlotte" 
and  "Regina,"  had  been  pupils  in  1915,  but,  during 

[44] 


The  School  as  It  Is  To-day 

the  summer  when  the  school  was  closed,-  had  ob- 
tained positions  elsewhere.  In  September  of  this 
year  they  heard  that  the  school  had  reopened  and 
they  returned  to  the  Sicher  factory,  because,  as  they 
said,  they  wanted  to  pursue  their  studies  further  and 
take  advantage  of  the  new  ideas  introduced.  Miss 
Heilbroner  calls  them  her  Ph.D.'s.  In  my  talk  with 
these  girls  they  assured  me  in  excellent  English  that 
the  school  had  absolutely  revolutionized  their  lives 
and  their  outlook  on  the  world.  I  was  struck  by 
the  manner  in  which  they  pronounced  English 
words,  their  elocution  being  superior  to  the  careless, 
slipshod  manner  of  many  natives. 

One  of  the  other  girls  in  the  school  proudly  told 
me  of  the  personal  advantages  that  accrued  to  her 
from  attendance  at  the  Sicher  school.  "When  I 
graduate  from  here,"  she  said,  "I  will  be  able  to 
earn  a  great  deal  more  than  I  do  now,  because  I  will 
have  more  intelligence  to  guide  me." 

Another  pupil,  a  married  woman,  Mrs.  Anna 
Sorger,  eagerly  asked  permission  to  tell  in  writing 
what  the  school  had  done  for  her.  A  day  or  two 
afterward  she  handed  in  the  following  remarkable 
essay,  which  I  reproduce  as  she  wrote  it  and  with- 
out corrections: 

[45] 


Where  Garments  and  Americans  Are  Made 

[ANNA  SORGER'S  STORY] 

"As  I  landed  in  New  York  I  not  able  to  speak 
English  and  by  that  it  was  very  difficult  for  me  to 
find  a  position;  so  I  was  compelled  to  read  the  ads 
in  german  papers  only  and  there  was  not  much  to 
look  for  but  nevertheless  I  got  a  job  where  I  earned 
$5 — a  week.  That  Amount  was  to  much  to  get  in 
starvation  but  even  to  little  for  living;  I  tried  hard 
enough  to  find  a  better  job  but  with  no  success. 

"It  was  said  to  me  that  I  can  learn  the  English 
Language  with  no  cost  for  me  so  I  started  to  attend 
the  Public  School  in  Brooklyn  but  I  could  not  give 
my  full  attention  to  the  teacher  as  I  was  to  tired 
after  working  the  whole  day  and  besides  that  I  could 
not  attend  the  same  regular  but  I  had  just  enough 
good  will  and  patience  to  wait  for  a  better  time,  and 
it  came,  late  but  sure.  I  was  informed  by  my  Lady 
friend  that  the  D.  E.  Sicher  &  Co.  is  in  need  of 
operators  so  I  went  there  and  applied  for.  There  I 
had  to  ask  at  Mr.  Salsbergs  Office  'do  you  need  any 
help?  and  Mr.  Salsberg  as  kindly  as  ever  asked  me 
where  I  used  to  work  before  and  what  kind  of  work 
I  was  able  to  do ;  I  suppose  that  my  answer  was  sat- 
isfactory as  Mr.  Salsberg  said  I  may  start  imme- 

[46] 


The  School  as  It  Is  To-day 

diately;  that  happened  the  first  Day  in  November 
1915  and  surprise  after  surprise  was  to  come. 

"There  are  many  nice  and  pleasant  things  what 
you  never  find  in  another  factory,  it  is  a  wrong  ex- 
pression if  I  say  factory  because  the  people  they 
are  working  there  are  like  a  big  family  and  treated 
by  Mr.  Sicher  just  as  well,  and  it  would  not  be  said 
too  much  if  we  call  him  the  father  of  this  big  family. 

"The  first  day  I  was  told  to  come  down  in  the 
Recreation  Hall  which  is  open  for  the  employees 
during  the  noon  hour ;  and  I  was  called  by  Mrs.  Hill 
to  come  in  her  office  where  she  took  my  name  and 
address. 

"There  is  a  Hospital  right  next  to  Mrs.  Hill 
Office  where  all  the  employees  are  treated  very  well. 
If  I  needed  any  help  for  headache  or  I  did  not  feel 
well  or  accidently  I  pushed  the  needle  in  my  finger 
or  any  other  thing  happens  I  know  that  I  can  find 
help  right  away  by  the  well  trained  nurse,  because 
she  is  really  doing  her  best  for  all,  and  she  is  quit 
nice  to  all  the  girls  with  no  exception.  I  am  also 
very  grateful  for  that  I  got  a  chance  to  go  to  the 
school  which  is  established  on  the  fifth  floor  in  our 
factory  where  Miss  R.  J.  Heilbroner  from  the  Board 
of  Education  is  doing  her  best  to  teach  us  how  to 

[47] 


Where  Garments  and  Americans  Are  Made 

read  write  and  speak  English.  There  I  am  never  to 
tired  because  I  can  go  to  school  or  classroom  at  nine 
o'clock  A.  M.  already  I  like  it  very  much  because 
Miss  Heilbroner  has  such  a  nice  and  easy  way  to 
teach  and  if  any  of  the  girls  ask  her  for  anything 
Miss  Heilbroner  gives  always  very  kindly  answers. 
One  day  I  saw  Mrs.  Weir  with  her  little  table  in 
the  Recreation  Hall  with  many  books  &  went  to 
Miss  Heilbroner  and  asked  her  how  to  get  a  book 
and  Miss  Heilbroner  as  nice  and  kindly  as  she  is 
always  did  show  me  how  to  fill  the  slip  for  free  li- 
brary books  which  is  in  the  factory  twice  a  week. 
Every  Tuesday  we  have  a  dancing  teacher  Miss 
Kahn  she  is  learning  us  the  leading  dances  and  the 
newest  one. 

"Some  day  in  the  week  we  have  lecture  by  Doctor 
Leiser.  He  speaks  about  sickness  how  to  avoid  ac- 
cident the  first  aid  by  accident  and  how  to  keep 
always  in  health,  another  day  in  the  week  we  have 
singing  where  Miss  Rothstein  sings  at  the  piano  and 
we  all  sing  the  Refrain.  There  is  sometimes  a  Sale 
on  underwear  in  Mr.  Salsbergs  office  where  we  can 
get  anything  we  want  for  much  cheaper  than  in  any 
store.  Than  we  have  a  lunch  counter  where  we 
get  everything  to  eat  and  drink  I  call  them  the  little 

[48] 


The  School  as  It  Is  To-day 

delicadessen  store  with  Mrs.  Niehaus  as  the  Store- 
keeper. Sometimes  we  have  a  ball  and  Enterten- 
ment  moving  pictures  if  one  of  the  girls  is  a  Bride 
and  she  leaves  the  Place  she  gets  nice  thing  from  the 
other  girls  and  before  she  goes  all  them  around  her 
and  singing  to  her  farewell.  I  am  very  glad  that  I 
was  taught  at  the  Companys  Classroom  how  to  read 
English  as  I  got  more  than  satisfaction.  It  gives 
me  so  much  pleasure  since  I  am  able  to  read  write 
and  speak  English  that  I  can  say  the  World  is  much 
nicer  for  me." 

"How  is  this  miracle  performed?"  I  asked  Miss 
Heilbroner.  "This  foreign  woman  has  learned  in 
a  few  months  to  write  English  quite  as  good  as 
many  Americans  I  know,  whose  native  language  it 
is,  and  who  have  been  using  it  exclusively  all  their 
lives/' 

For  answer  Miss  Heilbroner  handed  me  this  plan 
of  study  which  she  had  prepared  for  Mr.  Wheaton 
of  the  National  Board  of  Education,  and  which 
embodies  most  of  the  new  ideas  recently  introduced 
into  the  course : 


[49] 


Where  Garments  and  Americans  Are  Made 

KEYNOTE — AMERICANIZATION 

NATURALIZATION. — Advantages  of  being  a  citi- 
zen;-What  it  means  to  be  a  good  citizen;  How  to 
become  a  citizen ;  Opportunities  offered  in  America ; 
"America  is  another  word  for  Opportunity;"  What 
it  means  to  be  "free"  in  America;  Patriotism;  "Sa- 
lute to  the  Flag;"  "The  Star-Spangled  Banner;" 
"America." 

HISTORY. — Columbus,  Washington,  Lincoln,  Wil- 
son, Holidays;  Inventors — Franklin,  Morse,  Bell, 
Edison. 

Civics. — National  Government :  Head — Presi- 
dent; Law-making  body — Congress;  Capital — 
Washington ;  State :  Head — Governor ;  Capital — Al- 
bany; City:  Head — Mayor;  Departments  of  our 
city  government. 

GEOGRAPHY. — United  States — Appreciation;  Lo- 
cation; Leading  industries  and  products;  Popula- 
tion; Means  of  communication — United  States 
Mail,  Post  Office  Regulations,  Telephone,  Tele- 
graph; Means  of  transportation — Boats,  Trains. 

NEW  YORK  CITY. — Boroughs;  Emphasis  upon 
Manhattan;  Places  of  interest — Museums,  Libraries, 
Parks,  Aquarium,  etc.;  City  Flag;  Chief  Industries; 

[50] 


The  School  as  It  Is  To-day 

Means  of  travel — Surface  cars,  Street  car  trans- 
fers, Elevated  trains,  Subways. 

HEALTH  AND  SAFETY. — Importance  of  fresh  air; 
Importance  of  exercise;  Importance  of  proper  food; 
Care  of  food;  Care  of  the  eyes;  Care  of  the  teeth; 
Airing  a  room;  Anti-tuberculosis  measures;  "First 
Aid"  (correlated,  with  series  of  lectures  given  at  the 
factory  under  the  auspices  of  the  Board  of  Health)  ; 
How  to  cross  a  street  safely;  Reading  and  under- 
standing public  signs — -"Danger,"  "Hands  Off," 
"Fire  Exit,"  "Wait  Until  the  Car  Stops,"  etc. ;  Pur- 
pose :  To  reduce  the  number  of  accidents. 

LIBRARY  WORK. — Appreciation  and  uses  of  public 
library;  Making  out  application  blank;  Importance 
of  reading  and  understanding  what  is  written  on  a 
paper  before  signing  name  to  it;  Care  of  books; 
Book  lists  furnished. 

NEWSPAPER  WORK. — Reading  and  understanding 
a  good  American  newspaper ;  Current  events. 

BUSINESS  ETHICS. — Getting  and  keeping  a  posi- 
tion ;  Loyalty  to  employer. 

BUSINESS  LETTERS. — Application  for  position; 
Excuses — Absence  from  work;  Informing  of 
change  of  address,  etc. 


Where  Garments  and  Americans  Are  Made 

FRIENDLY  LETTERS. — Letter  of  thanks;  Invita- 
tion to  dinner,  etc. 

LANGUAGE. — Based  on  work  in  factory;  Cotton; 
Evolution  of  an  undergarment;  Reading;  In  addi- 
tion to  text  books,  newspapers  and  pamphlets  used ; 
Also  factory  paper — "Threads  and  Thoughts;" 
Writing;  Spelling;  Applications  for  money  orders; 
Uses  of  Alphabet — Dictionary,  Directory,  Adver- 
tisements; Language  work  based  on  entertainments 
and  lectures  at  the  factory;  Shopping;  Means  of 
travel  in  City;  Street  car  transfers. 

ARITHMETIC. — Fundamental  operations;  Tables; 
United  States  money;  Long  measure,  etc.  (used  in 
work)  ;  Earning  and  Saving;  Importance  of  saving 
(As  a  result,  savings  accounts  have  been  opened)  ; 
Bank  Accounts;  Keeping  personal  accounts;  Keep- 
ing own  work  reports. 


[52] 


CHAPTER  VII 
IS   IT  WORTH    WHILE? 

"Is  it  worth  while?"  I  asked  Mr.  Sicher.  "Why 
do  you  go  to  the  expense  of  all  this  when  you  are 
under  no  legal  compulsion  to  do  so?" 

"It  is  worth  while,"  he  said,  "and  most  em- 
phatically so.  Putting  it,  as  you  seem  to  do,  on  the 
basis  of  expense  only,  I  will  prove  to  you  that  even 
from  that  standpoint  alone  it  is  worth  while,  al- 
though that  is  not  personally  the  sole  motive.  The 
doing  away  with  illiteracy  by  the  educational  train- 
ing these  girls  receive  improves  their  efficiency  and 
earning  power.  This  in  turn  reacts  favorably  upon 
the  business.  They  give  back  in  efficient  labor  all 
that  it  costs  to  instruct  them  part  of  each  working 
day.  As  they  learn  more  about  their  work  they  be- 
come more  interested.  In  imagination  they  see  the 
garment  grow  from  the  raw  product  of  the  cotton 
field  to  the  finished  material  of  the  loom.  We  do 
not  want  cheap,  illiterate,  irresponsible,  unambitious 

[53] 


Where  Garments  and  Americans  Are  Made 

labor  and  all  progressive  manufacturers  are  coming 
to  see  that  such  labor  does  not  pay." 

As  to  the  cost  of  this  interesting  experiment, 
which  by  the  way  is  no  longer  an  experiment  in  the 
Sicher  factory,  let  us  take  the  year  1914  as  typical. 
The  total  cost  of  the  thirty-five  weeks  of  instruction 
was  $1,232.  Of  this  amount  the  Board  of  Education 
paid  out  for  teacher's  salary,  books,  pencils,  paper, 
etc.,  $560.  The  D.  E.  Sicher  firm  carried  the  re- 
mainder of  the  expense.  Of  this,  $357  went  for 
wages  of  workers  paid  while  learning,  at  the  rate  of 
seventeen  cents  an  hour;  $175  was  for  floor  space; 
$105  for  rent,  light  and  heat,  and  $35  for  janitor 
service.  The  cost  per  girl  to  the  firm  averages  about 
$16.80;  to  the  city,  $14.80. 

Not  much,  is  it,  when  city  and  employer  share 
the  expense?  And  it  is  all  bread  cast  upon  the  wa- 
ters, coming  back  to  the  firm  in  improved  service; 
to  the  city,  state  and  nation,  in  intelligent  citizen- 
ship. 

Mr.  Charles  H.  Winslow  of  the  United  States 
Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  caused  a  graphic  chart 
to  be  prepared  by  Mr.  Maruchess,  showing  the  rela- 
tion between  literacy  and  earning  capacity  at  this 
factory.  The  results  are  all  the  more  valuable  be- 

[54] 


Is  It  Worth  While? 

cause  the  concern,  established  nearly  fifty  years  ago 
by  Mr.  David  E.  Sicher  and  now  owned  and  man- 
aged by  his  sons,  Mr.  Dudley  D.  Sicher  and  Mr. 
Samuel  A.  Sicher,  has  been  practically  under  the 
same  management  and  direction  all  this  time  and  not 
sujbject  to  business  disturbance  due  to  frequently 
changed  ownership. 

This  chart  shows,  for  example,  that  for  thirty- 
two  weeks  preceding  the  opening  of  the  school  the 
wages  of  the  girls,  who  later  became  pupils,  aver- 
aged 19.5  cents  an  hour,  while  that  of  the  literate 
girls  was  23.2  cents.  After  four  weeks  of  instruc- 
tion the  girls  taking  the  school  course  increased  their 
earning  power  to  20.9  cents  an  hour.  In  sixteen 
weeks  of  school  attendance  the  girls  had  increased 
their  earning  capacity  to  22.2  cents.  It  is  note- 
worthy that  the  girls  who  did  not  attend  the  school 
not  only  did  not  increase  their  earning  power,  but  in 
these  sixteen  weeks  showed  a  slight  falling  off. 
These  two  groups — those  attending  the  school  and 
those  in  non-attendance — were  of  similar  age  and 
length  of  experience. 


[55] 


EPILOGUE 

IN  this  rapid  survey  of  a  new  and  important  edu- 
cational idea  we  have  carried  Marja,  the  immigrant 
girl,  from  King  and  caste-ridden  Europe  to  Amer- 
ica, the  land  of  hope  and  opportunity.  We  have 
seen  her  struggles  with  an  unknown  tongue  and  with 
ways  of  life  unfamiliar  to  her.  In  the  end  we  see 
her  transformed,  reborn — no  longer  foreign  and  il- 
literate, but  educated  and  self-respecting.  Later  she 
will  marry  and  her  children,  though  they  may  have 
traditions  of  another  land  and  another  blood,  will 
be  Americans  in  education  and  ideals  of  life,  gov- 
ernment and  progress.  It  has  been  worth  while  that 
one  man  has  broken  through  this  barrier  and  made 
the  road  clear  for  others  to  follow. 

All  real  education  has  the  development  of  disci- 
pline as  its  basis.  Poise,  self-control  and  self-esteem 
are  characteristic  of  the  well-ordered  mind,  and  the 
growth  of  these  in  the  industrial  worker  makes  for 
efficient  service  and  better  wages.  Gradually  there 
is  an  awakening  of  social  consciousness — the  aware- 

[56] 


Epilogue 

ness  of  one's  place  in  society  and  of  the  obligations 
such  membership  entails  upon  the  individual  in  re- 
spect to  the  group  or  racial  mass,  with  a  constantly 
developing  sense  of  one's  personal  responsibility  in 
all  human  relationships. 

In  conclusion,  the  higher  significance  of  this  work 
means  that  we  must  descend  the  shaft  and  share 
the  lives  of  those  that  dwell  in  the  lower  strata — 
the  teeming  populations  that  never  see  the  stars  or 
the  green  grass,  scent  the  flowers  or  hear  the  birds 
sing — the  huddled,  hopeless  foreign  folk  of  the  tene- 
ments. We  are  living  in  the  Age  of  Service,  and 
are  growing  into  a  conviction  that  life  is  not  a  mat- 
ter of  favored  races  or  small,  exclusive  social  groups, 
but  embraces  all  humanity  and  reaches  back  to  God. 
To  those  of  prophetic  soul  comes  a  vision  of  the  day 
that  haunted  Tennyson  when 

"The  war-drum  throbbed  no  longer  and  the  battle 

flags  were  furled, 
In  the  Parliament  of  Man,  the  Federation  of  the 

World." 


THE  END 


[57] 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below, 
or  on  the  date  to  which  renewed.  Renewals  only: 

Tel.  No.  642-3405 

Renewals  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  date  due. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


ri£C'DLU  APR  2  6  71 -8PM  9  4 


AU6    61987  - 

AUTO.  DISC. 

AUG251986 

INTERUBRARY 

LOAN 

SEP  2  9  1386 

UNIV.  OF  CALIF.. 

BERK. 

General  Library 


YB   19062 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


BERKELEY 


